Sexual risk behavior among youth: modeling the influence of prosocial activities and socioeconomic factors

Sexual activity among high-school-aged youths has steadily increased since the 1970s, emerging as a significant public health concern. Yet, patterns of youth sexual risk behavior are shaped by social class, race, and gender. Based on sociological theories of financial deprivation and collective socialization, we develop and test a model of the relationships among neighborhood poverty; family structure and social class position; parental involvement; prosocial activities; race; and gender as they predict youth sexual risk behavior. We employ structural equation modeling to test this model on a cross-sectional sample of 370 sexually active high-school students from a midwestern city; 57 percent (n = 209) are males and 86 percent are African American. We find that family structure indirectly predicts sexual risk behavior through neighborhood poverty, parental involvement, and prosocial activities. In addition, family class position indirectly predicts sexual risk behavior through neighborhood poverty and prosocial activities. We address implications for theory and health promotion.

Sexual activity and contraceptive use: the components of the decisionmaking process

In light of the social consequences of early childbearing, unplanned pregnancy, and the transmission of AIDS, a great need exists to understand how adolescents make sexual and reproductive decisions. Drawing primarily on literature from sub-Saharan Africa, this article focuses on three behavioral outcomes: nonmarital sexual activity, contraceptive use, and condom use. It explores adolescent's perceptions of the costs and benefits of engaging in these behaviors, their assessment of their susceptibility to the potential consequences of their actions, and the role of family, peer, and dyadic factors in shaping their reproductive decisions. The literature reveals that cultural values regarding sexuality and gender roles, the power dimensions of adolescents' lives, and economic disadvantage exert powerful influences on the decisionmaking process. Decisions to engage in unprotected sex may also be based on insufficient knowledge and distorted judgements of the risks of becoming pregnant and acquiring sexually transmitted infections. Nondecisionmaking is found to be fairly common in some contexts.

The efficacy of the health belief model for predicting condom usage and risky sexual practices in university students

This investigation examined the ability of the health belief model (HBM) to predict condom usage and risky sexual practices in 122 white heterosexual college students (ages 17 to 33 years). The HBM did not significantly explain condom usage in the 58 men and 64 women surveyed; rather it partially explained the variance in sexual risk behaviors. Results were not consistent for men and women. The HBM components significantly explained 18% of the variance in multiple sexual partnerships in men and 22% of the variance in this behavior in women. The HBM constructs also explained 9% of the variance in the likelihood of women being intoxicated or high during sex and 18% of the variance in the number of sexual risk behaviors endorsed by women. These findings suggest that the HBM has differential and limited utility for predicting sexual practices in university students. Future research is needed to examine more comprehensive models of behavior change.

Sexual activity and contraceptive use among children entering out-of-home care

This study explored the prevalence of reported sexual activity of a cohort of children entering out-of-home care and the ability of selected factors to explain reported sexual activity and use or nonuse of contraceptives. It found that children as young as age 8 reported sexual activity, and that more than one-third of the children age 8 to 18 reported being sexually active. Of those who were sexually active, more than one-third were not using contraceptives. Using logistic regression, five variables are identified as having importance in explaining sexual activity. Two variables had some limited ability to explain contraceptive use. Implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for policy and practice are made.

Pregnant and parenting adolescents and their younger sisters: the influence of relationship qualities for younger sister outcomes

On the basis of social modeling theory and a sibling interaction hypothesis, it was hypothesized that specific relationship qualities between a pregnant or parenting teen and her younger sister would be associated with permissive younger sister outcomes, such as permissive childbearing attitudes and permissive sexual behavior. Results indicated that negative relationship qualities, such as rivalry, competition, and conflict, were more closely related to younger sisters engaging in problem delinquent-like behavior and sexual behavior than were positive relationship qualities, such as warmth and closeness. Additionally, a shared friendship network with the older sister was found to be associated with extensive younger sister problem behavior and sexual behavior. Three potential explanatory processes are discussed.

The role of the environment in the sexual activity of school students in Tororo and Pallisa Districts of Uganda

Several models of adolescent sexual activity have previously been published and most of them suggest two basic components, biological and sociological. This article highlights important environmental factors in shaping the sexual behaviour of the school-going youth in Uganda. Students in education levels Senior 1 to 6 participated in the study. Information was collected from self-response structured questionnaires, focus-group discussions, and discussions with teachers. Student respondents were randomly selected.

Premarital sexual experience of married women in Kinshasa, Zaire

Using responses from questions about age at first sexual intercourse and age at first marriage, this paper offers a method of studying premarital sexual behaviour in societies where the subject is a taboo topic. More than half of the currently married women in Kinshasa engaged in sexual intercourse before marriage. The likelihood of having premarital intercourse increases among younger women, those with higher education, and those whose ethnic groups have liberal attitudes towards sexual conduct. The results also suggest that sexual activity accounts for late marriage.

Gender, race, class, and the trend toward early motherhood. A feminist analysis of teen mothers in contemporary society

This research offers a feminist analysis of teen pregnancy and the trend toward single parenting. Forty-five young women between the ages of 14 and 19 were interviewed at a high school for teen mothers in the Denver metropolitan area. The findings of the study highlight the complex relationship between female adolescence, family structure, and social location as each of these factors informs the trend toward early motherhood. The analysis frames teen pregnancy within the feminist discourse on female development, focusing on issues of attachment and autonomy as these conflicting needs influence the choice to mother.

Context and content: the impact of school-leaving and school-based health education on AIDS-relevant cognitions

A survey examined health beliefs and intentions among 690 16-18 year-olds in Dundee. Respondents in the younger cohort (n = 363) were classified according to their educational situation (at school vs left) and self-reports of having received AIDS/HIV-relevant health education. Both remaining in school and receiving AIDS/HIV-relevant health education had independent beneficial effects, but the effects of leaving school also interacted with sex of respondent and with amount of relevant education received prior to leaving. Males' and females' reliance on mass media and other information sources diverged once they left school, indicating that males who leave school early are most likely to disregard useful or important information regarding AIDS. Consistent with this finding, leaving school reduced the difference between males' and females' intention to use condoms with a new partner. The beneficial impact of having previously received AIDS/HIV-relevant education on beliefs concerning the controllability of the epidemic and on feeling worried about everyday contact with a person with HIV/AIDS, was most marked among those who had left school. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for health education strategies.

A study of the cognitive aspects of sexual decision making in adolescent females

A comprehensive sexuality questionnaire was administered to 37 females, ages 13 through 16 years, who attended clinics for routine health care. Subjects completed standardized scales of self-concept, locus of control, and future orientation. They also were given a short battery of standardized cognitive tests. Three groups were identified: Group 1 was sexually active and using contraception reliably, Group 2 was not using contraception reliably, and Group 3 had not been sexually active. Group 1 adolescents had higher scores on the vocabulary subtest of the WISC-R (F = 3.4, p less than .05) than did Group 2 adolescents, over and above the effect of socioeconomic status (SES). Group 1 subjects had higher scores on knowledge of sex and contraception than did Group 2 (F = 3.3, p less than .05). Group 1 had more internal locus of control (F = 7.0, p less than .005) than did Group 2 over and above the effect of SES. Mean scores for Group 3 adolescents were intermediate and not significantly different. The findings suggest that cognitive factors may influence contraceptive behavior in adolescent females.

The determinants of sexuality among adolescent school girls in Kenya

One thousand seven hundred and fifty one Secondary school girls aged 12 to 19 years were interviewed by means of a self-administered questionnaire. 416 (23.8%), of them reported to have been sexually experienced at the time of the study. 4.1% of the sexually experienced girls had started sex below the age of 10 years, some of whom had been raped. The low and middle class private schools in the city centre had higher incidence of sexually experienced girls. The same was observed in those girls staying away from their parents. Majority of the sexually experienced girls had started coitus within one to two years of attaining menarche or having a boyfriend. Some of these girls may have been forced to indulge in sex by the men/boys or circumstances. Lack of factual knowledge, parental guidance and lust for material gains are some of the factors the girls felt may be responsible for the upsurge in adolescent sexual behaviour. The role played by these factors in adolescent sexuality is discussed, and possible remedial measures are suggested.

Television and adolescent sexuality

Existing studies of the sexual content of television programming and advertising and the effects of this content on adolescent viewers are reviewed. Content studies show that the frequency of sexual references have increased in the past decade and are increasingly explicit. Studies of the effects of this content, while scarce, suggest that adolescents who rely heavily on television for information about sexuality will have high standards of female beauty and will believe that premarital and extramarital intercourse with multiple partners is acceptable. They are unlikely to learn about the need for contraceptives as a form of protection against pregnancy or disease. Suggestions for future research and trends in television programming policies are explored.

Sexual behavior and contraceptive risk taking among sexually active adolescent females

Drawing on DeLamater's conceptual model of premarital contraceptive activity, this study assessed the relationships between various social, developmental, and behavioral variables and contraceptive risk taking by sexually active adolescent females. The hypotheses were tested on a national random sample of unmarried sexually active adolescent females (n = 1512) ages 15-20 years from Cycle III of the National Survey of Family Growth. The number of years the subjects had been sexually active was the strongest predictor of their frequency of sexual intercourse, followed by their frequency of attendance at religious services. The inverse relationship between religious attendance and coital frequency was much stronger among whites than blacks. When the influence of these variables on contraceptive risk taking was assessed, coital frequency explained 7.2% of the variation in contraceptive risk taking, with the number of years the adolescent had been dating explaining a small amount of additional variation. Our data support not only the first stage of DeLamater's conceptual model of premarital contraceptive activity, but also aspects of Jessor's more general theory of adolescent risk taking and problem behavior.

The impact of sex education on sexual activity, contraceptive use and premarital pregnancy among American teenagers

Sixty percent of women and 52 percent of men now in their 20s took a sex education course by age 19, according to the 1984 National Longitudinal Survey of Work Experience of Youth. Whites are more likely than either blacks or Hispanics to have had a course by that age--57 percent compared with 53 percent and 48 percent, respectively. The survey also shows that large proportions of teenagers initiate coitus before they have taken a sex education course. Among young women who first have sex at age 15, for example, only 48 percent have already taken a course (i.e., have taken it at a younger age or at the same age); and among young women who first have intercourse at age 18, the proportion is 61 percent. Young men are even less likely than young women to take a course before they begin coitus--at age 15, the figure is 26 percent, and at age 18, 52 percent. Adolescent women who have previously taken a sex education course are somewhat more likely than those who have not to initiate sexual activity at ages 15 and 16 (though they are no more likely to do so at ages 17 and 18). However, the effect of prior sex education is small, and is weaker than that of virtually every other variable found to have a significant relationship with first intercourse at ages 15-16. Among the strongest determinants of first coitus at those ages are infrequent church attendance, parental education of fewer than 12 years and black race. Older sexually active girls who have previously had a course are significantly more likely to use an effective contraceptive method (73 percent) than are those who have never taken a course (64 percent). This relationship may offset any effect that a sex education course may have in raising the likelihood of early first coitus, since no significant association can be found between taking a sex education course and subsequently becoming premaritally pregnant before age 20.